MADRID | The Euribor, at which most home mortgages in Spain are referenced, has fallen 0.001 percentage point in its daily rate down to 1.044 percent. This is the tenth consecutive occasion in which the inter-euro zone banking rate decreases to a historical minimum. Its average level in July was of 1.127 percent, one point less than a year ago, causing a significant reduction of mortgages’ total debt, on both new ones…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Problems for Barclays are multiplying. Added to the Libor scandal in the United Kingdom and the United States, it has been revealed on Monday morning that the Spanish ministry of Finance is performing a fiscal investigation on the bank’s national subsidiary practices of dividend or coupon tax fraud. According to the daily Expansion, which has the scoop, Barclays Capital would have started to avoid…
MADRID | ACS reported that Société Général has agreed to refinance part of the debt of its 8.25 percent acquisition of Iberdrola. The transaction, signed by ACS’ subsidiary Residencial Montecarmelo, allows to substitute the loan currently held with a syndicate of banks, in which BBVA acted as agent. The operation accounts for €1.6 billion and will leave ACS with a 6.6 percent stake in Iberdrola, that is, ACS will still…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Things are getting even more difficult in Spain. First, the recently announced measures of adjustment, then the protests from the mining industry and now it is the turn of the Spanish regions. Minister of finance Cristóbal Montoro said that he wouldn’t be as permissive as Brussels has been with Spain; that the government will not extend the period for the regions to achieve the fiscal…
By valenciaplaza.com | IG Markets' Daniel Pingarrón said in a conversation with VP for The Corner that the European authorities and the Spanish government should improve their timing if they want investors to believe that they can set up a coordinated, effective plan. The Spanish market index Ibex spiked after president Mariano Rajoy announced its austerity policy, but it was a short-lived reaction. Why was that? The recovery of the…
MADRID | The Inditex Group announced this week that it would completely absorb the increase in VAT from 18% to 21% that the Spanish government will carry out as one of its austerity measures to sustain the State's levels of income. But Inditex said it would not increase the prices of its products. In fact, this counter-price policy will extend to all of the Inditex Group’s chains, from Zara, to Pull&Bear, Massimo…
MADRID | Spain's Iberdrola today announced an agreement by which Iberdrola USA will sell to Direct Energy the 100% of its unregulated gas and electricity retail companies Energetix and NYSEG Solutions, both based in New York State for $110.2 million. The two companies in the process of being sold provide electricity, natural gas and energy related products and services to residential, small business, large commercial and industrial customers. As of the end…
By valenciaplaza.com | How long will it take for the euro zone to finally set its mechanisms and tackle its imbalances? The euro country members only started to do some serious work in the last summit, said Marc Garrigasait, president of Koala Capital Sicav, in a conversation with VP. What feelings do you go through while watching your stock market monitors? I've never lived through a period in which not only…
how can i get my ex back By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | The president of the Spanish government Mariano Rajoy had a purpose this morning. He wanted to make a decisive move, not just a simple declaration of intentions. He wanted to get out of his hideout to take the reins of Spain. And he has done it. During a speech in a plenary session of the Congress this…
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | As the year advances, it seems to confirm that the EU economies of emerging Europe are moving at two speeds, as is also the case of the European Union as a whole. Focusing on the five countries we usually review in this report (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic), the first two are keeping up a slightly faster pace in activity…